On the Yangtze River, a fleet of five large ships of five to six hundred materials was lined up in a horizontal line, passing through the white rain and fog, and going down the river.
These five large ships are all large grain-carrying ships that are very common in the lakes and rivers. They have been reinforced and transformed so that they can go into battle to kill the enemy.
On each ship, large wooden shields that were wide and thick and could withstand shotgun bullets were erected on both sides. There were some large and small holes in the wooden shields.
Protruding from some of the larger holes were long oars, which rippled the river water and gave added strength to the ships moving downstream. The oarsmen were all young and strong men. They were still shirtless in such a cold weather, their muscles were bulging, and their foreheads were covered with sweat.
The other part of the hole is a shooting hole. What protrudes from the hole are black gun barrels. Looking at the thick and strong appearance of the barrel, you know that it is not an ordinary bird gun, but a powerful turtle dove foot. pistol! Because it was still raining in the sky, in order to prevent the rainwater from getting wet the gunpowder match ropes, awnings were erected on the amidships of the five large ships to protect them from wind and rain.
Under the canopy of the boat, in addition to the oarsmen and musketeers, there are elite soldiers who join the gang to fight.
In a water battle along a river, one cannot wear heavy armor. Each of these elite soldiers only played short-distance games, wearing light straw sandals on their feet. Their weapons and armor consisted of a waist knife, a small shield, and a small ax with a handle more than two feet long - the characteristics of this axe. The ax is very small and doesn't weigh much, but it is a sharp weapon for breaking armor in close combat. If the ax cuts hard, no matter what kind of armor you are wearing, you will be seriously injured!
Moreover, this kind of ax can also be used to cut the ropes binding the pontoon, and can also be thrown out and used as a throwing ax!
On a boat in the middle, two generals wearing bamboo hats and raincoats were just standing on the bow. One of them is Li Zicheng's grandnephew and the successor of Dashun Fengtian Army Li Laishun. The other person is older, his surname is Hu, and he is a "second-generation breakout". His father was once Li Zicheng's bodyguard, but he didn't know where he went later? It is estimated that he died in Dashun Jiangshan. And he grew up in Jiashan Temple since he was a child. Although he shaved his head and pretended to be a monk, like Li Laishun, he didn't chant sutras well. He just practiced martial arts hard and made a turtle-footed musket. His marksmanship was very good, and he was known as a perfect shot!
Since Jiashan Temple is right next to the Lishui River and surrounded by streams, Li Laishun and Hu Yiqiang, a group of "second generations", are all proficient in water, and some of them even learned how to sail boats.
The five large ships currently sailing quietly on the Yangtze River under the cover of rain and fog are actually merchant ships owned by Jiashan Temple. There are so many monks in Jiashan Temple to support. It is not enough to just rely on Li Zicheng's savings to make a living. The land owned by the temple must also be collected. There was only a few rents, so Li Zicheng ordered merchant ships to do business between Lishui and Yuezhou very early, and sometimes traveled to the Yangtze River.
And the people who do business with Li Zicheng usually don't have any good people. They are either water bandits from Dongting Lake or gangsters from the Yangtze River. Therefore, Li Laishun and Hu Yiqiang, the "second generation" of Jiashan Temple, are very concerned about joining water gangs. Not unfamiliar.
After Li Zicheng made a comeback in the name of Li Fengtian, many heroes from the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake came to join him. Now, half of the warriors who followed Li Laishun and Hu Yiqiang to steal the Yangtze River pontoon were from Jianghu water pirates. !
This was really beyond the expectations of the gambling prince of Ezha. Li Zicheng, who was born in the Loess Plateau and had been a bandit for half his life, actually developed the skills of a water thief.
Although he didn't know that Li Zicheng ordered the water thief skill, the gambler prince Eza still deployed defenses on the Shashikou pontoon bridge.
Under the rain and steam, when five Fengtian Navy warships turned around a river bay, what suddenly appeared was a huge pontoon bridge on which a group of heavily armed Eight Banners soldiers wearing bamboo hats and raincoats were patrolling. !
Those Eight Banners soldiers did not expect that five large ships would suddenly appear on the river through the vast rain and fog, but their reaction was still very fast. After a commotion, the horn sound suddenly sounded through the rain.
At the other end, Li Laishun also shouted angrily: "Add a paddle and hit it!"
As soon as Li Laishun gave the order, the oarsmen of his boat began to pull the oar with all their strength. Two white waves immediately separated from the bow of the boat. It picked up speed and rushed towards the pontoon in front!
Li Laishun dodged to the side again, then turned around and yelled at Hu Yiqiang: "One shot! Shoot the motherfucker!"
At this time, Hu Yiqiang had retracted under the canopy of the boat, and had set up a turtle-dove-foot musket with a lit match rope. He also found the target. After hearing Li Laishun's order, he pulled the trigger and shouted: " middle!"
"Bang!"
After a crisp gunshot, the head of a small officer who was waving a waist knife and commanding his men to prepare for the Eight Banners soldiers exploded like a rotten watermelon, with red, white, and gray objects flying everywhere. It didn't work anymore. He couldn't even scream, as if he was struck by lightning, his limbs twitched and he fell on the pontoon.
"Change the gun!" Hu Yiqiang, who had succeeded in the hit, immediately shouted, and then threw the empty turtle-foot musket back. Someone immediately caught it, and then another loaded musket was handed to him. into his hand. Without saying a word, he took the musket and set it up again, aiming it at another Eight Banners soldier who was screaming, and shot him in the head again, hitting the Eight Banners soldier in the shoulder!
Sure enough, it was a perfect shot, killing him with one shot! Well, the projectiles of the Turtle Dove Knife Gun weigh one or two, and when they hit your shoulder, there will be a hole as big as a bowl, and all the armor, skin, flesh, and bones will be shattered by you! Of course, the blood vessels were broken, and the blood surged out like a fountain. The Eight Banners soldier let out heart-piercing screams in pain. It was really impossible to survive. It would be better to wait for death than to be shot in the head!
"Boom! Boom!"
After Hu shot two Eight Banners soldiers to death, the sharpshooters of the Fengtian Army on the other two large ships also fired their turtle-dove-foot muskets, and then two more Eight Banners soldiers fell down!
Sporadic gunshots kept ringing out, and the Eight Banners soldiers on the pontoon kept getting shot and fell! Although the firepower was not very intensive, it was continuous and precise. After a while, the Eight Banners soldiers on the pontoon were beaten to the point where "dead bodies lay all over the bridge"!
But they have no effective means of counterattack.
It was raining heavily now, and they had no roof to protect them from the rain. Of course, the muskets couldn't fire and they couldn't even light the match ropes!
Their bows and arrows were still usable, but they had been patrolling in the rain for a long time. The Manchu bows they carried had absorbed enough water, the bow strings were soft, and the arrows they shot were limp and had no strength. Even the Fengtian Army The canopy on the top of the warship cannot be penetrated.
Although the Fengtian Army had the upper hand in this round of firefights, the battle between Turtle Dove Foot muskets and bows and arrows did not last long. With the combined action of suitable water flow and oars, the five large ships quickly approached across the river. On the Yangtze River, a pontoon bridge made of hundreds of boats and wooden planks crashed into it!
"Canopy! Canopy! Canopy"
Several loud noises came, overwhelming the sound of the water, the golden drums and horns of the Qing army calling the police, and the screams and shouts of the Qing troops on the shore and bridge!
These five wooden boats have all undergone certain modifications for today's collision. Bronze-cast collision angles were installed on the originally flat bows. The collision angle was like a blade, cutting into the pontoon.
The chopped wood chips were flying in the sky, and the entire pontoon was shaken violently. More than a hundred Eight Banners soldiers who were approaching the collision point of the five warships did not even have time to get down and grab the wooden board before they were shaken. Bounced several feet high, and then danced and flew into the rolling Yangtze River. They were all wearing quite heavy cloth-covered armor! After falling into the water, I couldn't float at all. I just struggled a few times and then sank without even a bubble.
Although the Eight Banners soldiers who were a little further away were not knocked into the Yangtze River, they could not stand firm. They all fell on the slippery pontoon bridge, staggering one by one, struggling to get up.
The people on the bridge were shaken so hard that they fell into the water and somersaulted, but the people on the boat were well prepared. Before the impact, they had already tightly grasped the ropes on the deck, and then everyone except the musketeers All the people picked up their shields, raised their axes, howled like "tiger off the boat", jumped off the bow, climbed onto the pontoon, brandished their axes, and hacked at the staggering Eight Banners soldiers.
There are more than a hundred soldiers on these five large boats, including the oarsmen. Now, except for the musketeers who continue to shoot black guns on the boats, everyone else jumps on the pontoon to kill people. More than 400 soldiers rushed down at once. people!
Li Laishun also rushed down the bow of the ship with an axe. First, he killed an Eight Banners soldier who was struggling to get up with an axe. Then he shouted angrily: "Kill the Tatars to avenge the martyrs who died in Shanhaiguan and Maolu Mountain! Kill!" "
The soldiers of the Fengtian Army who had already rushed onto the floating bridge and those who had not yet rushed onto the pontoon were immediately inspired to fight - they were all "second generation"!
Dashundu has conquered the world!
Aren’t these heroes like them going to enjoy endless wealth and glory? But being disturbed by these hateful Tatars, life has been miserable till now.
How can this Tatar not be hateful!
All the Fengtian Army soldiers roared like thunder and began a one-sided killing on the pontoon!
"Kill all the dog Tatars and take back Dashun's kingdom!"
Well, they have to take back everything that should belong to them!
When the Shashikou Floating Bridge was attacked, Hubei Governor Zhang Chaozhen was leading his troops to guard the Shashikou Commercial Port, anxiously waiting for the good news ahead. Eza was a gambler, but he was not a gambler. His family was originally from the Guangning garrison in the Ming Dynasty. He joined the Qing Dynasty along with Sun Degong. He was a member of the Zhenglan Banner Han Army. Although he was a high-ranking slave, he was not considered a member of the Eight Banners. His official rank was Yunqiwei. To be able to climb to the position of governor of Hubei today is to be conscientious at every step. Even so, it is inevitable that you will be blamed or get criticized severely for minor mistakes.
He was very opposed to Eza's "one-shot decision". If he won the bet, all the credit would be Eza's. If he lost the bet, he would be unlucky as well. It would be strange if he didn't object.
But what's the point of his objection?
Kangxi himself was a child, and the people he trusted the most were a group of Manchu dignitaries who were not much older than him. Not to mention the old man of One Han and Eight Banners, even if he needed Manchu generals, he was not necessarily trusted very much.
Therefore, Zhang Chaozhen could only take half of the standard soldiers to Jingzhou to look after Eza's house after receiving Eza's order. The main force in Jingzhou had been taken away by Eza, leaving only a small number of standard soldiers and soldiers drawn from various places. There were less than 2,500 soldiers from the green camp who came here, half of which were Zhang Chaozhen's Fu Biao.
With such a small number of people, he divided them into three parts: a thousand people guarded Jingzhou City, and a thousand people guarded the bridgehead on the south bank of the pontoon bridge. Zhang Chaozhen was very worried that Li Zicheng would take a back route and cut off the pontoon bridge, but he guessed it.
However, he did not expect that Li Zicheng, a Shaanxi native, would now fight on the water. Instead of attacking the bridgehead on the south bank of the pontoon bridge from land, he would attack the pontoon bridge directly from the waterway.
The people guarding the pontoon were his first troops and the Eight Banners soldiers assigned to him by Babur, the capital of Jingzhou. There were about a thousand people in total.
When Li Laishun and others attacked, it was the turn of the Eight Banners soldiers to patrol, but they all fell into the hands of Shun Erdai who was holding back evil fire.
Zhang Chaozhen was deceived after receiving the report from her subordinates!
The enemy came from the waterway, most of the Eight Banners Heavenly Soldiers led by Zuo Ling were gone, and the pontoon bridge had been occupied! Most of the Eight Banners soldiers led by Zuo had more than one hundred and two hundred, and they were wiped out in the blink of an eye. How many enemies were there? one thousand? two thousand?
He only had a thousand or a few hundred men left at hand, and he had to defend Shashikou, Jingzhou City, and recapture the floating bridge.
How could this possibly work?
Since it’s not enough, we need to have priorities!
The prince himself wants to make a big gamble, so if he loses, he can’t be chopped off!
But if Jingzhou City is lost, then his head will not be saved!
When he thought of this, he quickly ordered: "Hurry up, go back to Jingzhou City and stay behind closed doors!"
The people below were stunned: "Futai, where do you want to guard?"
"Guard Jingzhou! Jingzhou is the foundation of the imperial court in Hubei, we must not lose anything!"
"Then, what should the prince of Jiangnan do? The pontoon bridge section is the only way for the prince to retreat."
The man's words stopped at this point, because he had already seen the vicious look in the governor's eyes.
Seeing that the people below him were speechless, Zhang Chaozhen said again: "Quickly, go and give orders to the generals and deputy generals in Yichang, Jingmen, Xiangyang and other places. Tell them that Jingzhou is in danger. The prince's retreat has been blocked, and ask them to bring their troops to Jingzhou to join them immediately." !”
The meaning of convergence is, of course, to move closer to me!
Zhang Chaozhen is now very worried that Li Zicheng's people will cross the river to attack Jingzhou after seizing the pontoon!
Li Zicheng had 20,000 troops, and the entire Jingzhou city was full of more than 1,000 defenders. Even if he brought all the family members of the Eight Banners soldiers to the top of the city, they might not be able to collect 3,000.
Twenty thousand versus three thousand. Can't hold it!
So he must concentrate his forces!
As for whether Wu Yingxiong would leave Kuimen to attack Yichang, it was not considered by Zhang Chaozhen.
Amidst the rain, an army numbering tens of thousands was moving forward in a zigzag manner among the high mountains of Daba Mountain.
This is the elite soldier who led the sneak attack on Xiangyang led by Wu Yingxiong himself!
In this huge gamble, everyone here in the Qing Dynasty despised Wu Yingxiong, the "big bear". The big bear was also a bear! Moreover, Wu Yingxiong is still a "thousand bear" who can make a thousand mistakes.
Because Yang Laijia, the commander-in-chief of Xiangyang Town in the Qing Dynasty, had secretly communicated with Wu Yingxiong early in the morning, he was fully aware of Ezha's military deployment!
Moreover, the mountain road from Kuizhou to Xiangyang is also guarded by Yang Laijia's soldiers.
Therefore, Wu Yingxiong now leads an army of 10,000 to attack Xiangyang through rugged and complex mountains. Basically, there is no risk. To be honest, he is just cheating!
In addition, even if Yang Laijia, who rebelled from the Yanping Palace to the Qing Dynasty, lost his mind and became a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty, he could still deal with the 10,000 Wu family troops led by Wu Yingxiong with the two thousand town bids under his command. Elite?
This was the elite soldier who made Yue Le jump into the river and forced Kangxi to recruit himself!
If Yang Laijia had that kind of ability, why would he be called a traitor? Helping Zheng Chenggong conquer Nanjing and establish the Zheng family dynasty (as it should be), isn't he delicious?
Moreover, Wu Yingxiong didn't think that E-Zha could beat Li Zicheng in a bet - he had already informed Li Zicheng of E-Zha's sneak attack across the river. It would be wrong for a fox as old as Li Zicheng to be fooled.
Therefore, in this case, Wu Yingxiong was acting as a cheat and wanted to rip off Huguang's wealth. The possibility of losing was non-existent.
Since he couldn't lose, of course he had to perform well, so he didn't send his generals to lead the troops. He simply went up himself, leading 10,000 elite soldiers, and marched at the speed of a rapid march on the rugged and winding roads. Even though it was raining now, he never slowed down.
Wu Yingxiong walked by himself this time. He was walking on the mountain road with difficulty, using a cane and wearing leggings according to the method taught to him by his son Wu Shifan. There were soldiers all around. Everyone watched the chubby prince measuring the mountain road with his feet, and everyone couldn't help but speed up their pace.
Wu Yingxiong's son Wu Shifan also participated in this sneak attack. He led his group of fusiliers and a group of Ma's white-armed soldiers called from Zhongzhou at the forefront. The pole soldiers are composed of mountain people who are accustomed to walking on mountain roads. Although the mountain roads in Daba Mountain are difficult, they cannot stop them. Just when Li Laishun was seizing Shashikou and the Jingjiang Floating Bridge, the team led by Wu Shifan had quietly entered Yunyang Prefecture next door to Xiangyang Prefecture.
Now, bear, it's going to be amazing!
(End of chapter)
